MMA was born and raised in Incheon, South Korea. When he was in elementary school, he was introduced to the original StarCraft, which would become his passion and would later lead him to become a progamer. At first, he wanted to be a soldier, but due to a knee injury he had to be discharged from the army.[1] MMA played as a Terran on SK Telecom T1 from 2008 under the id "Dream.t)1988", although he did not play very many games.

MMA was the first of the new recruits for BoxeR's SlayerS team, whom he knew through his old team SK Telecom T1. He later evolved into SlayerS' ace player, leading people to nickname him the Son of Boxer even to this day.

He has found success in team leagues such as Zotac and GSTL, where he has been a pivotal force in SlayerS's lineup, and is often utilized as an Ace player. In the premiere GSTL February, MMA almost performed a reverse all-kill, taking down 3 opponents from ZeNEX when his team was down 0-3. In the GSTL March, MMA has been very successful, defeating players such as MC and July on SlayerS' path to the finals. He defeated Mvp in the championship match, earning his team the GSTL title and himself the Most Valuable Player Gold Card for his performance. The following GSTL in May, MMA was once again used as the primary Ace player of SlayerS. He helped stage a comeback against fOu in the semifinals and was chosen as the last player to face MvP in the finals where he took out DongRaeGu in the deciding game to earn SlayerS a repeat victory, as well as a repeat MVP Gold Card for himself.

MMA's first individual success in Korea was his run through the GSL Super Tournament. He managed to draw only Terran opponents, including two of his teammates, GanZi and Ryung. With the exception of those two, his other series were fairly close, particularly a comeback from a two game deficit against MarineKing in the semifinals to advance 3-2. Although MMA was the heavy favorite going into the finals, he would subsequently be swept by Polt 4-0.

MMA's next notable finish in Korea would be in the Arena of Legends 1. He dominated his group, winning 2-0 against both NesTea and MC to advance to the round of 4. There, he lost 0-3 to MarineKing, therefore placing third.

MMA would be able to play in the Blizzard Cup due to the fact that Mvp qualified three times, so MMA got a spot by virtue of his 4th place position in the GSL Player Rankings. In the group stages, MMA would tie for first in his group with a score of 3-1, only dropping a game to Polt. He would later get his revenge though, beating Polt and Leenock in the tie breakers to secure first place in his group. In the bracket play, MMA would 3-0 Mvp to face DongRaeGu in the finals. MMA was up 3-0 against DongRaeGu before DongRaeGu started to make a comeback, evening the score 3-3. MMA however would not falter in the ace game and end up winning the tournament, 4-3.

MMA's first Code A qualification, was for GSL March. He eliminated the foreigner Ret 2-0 to advance to the Round of 16. There he was defeated by Killer 1-2. In the subsequent Code A tournament, he quickly took out TopClass and Hyperdub making it to the Round of 8 before falling to Bomber. Entering the Round of 8 was enough to allow MMA to play in the up/down matches where he was defeated by MarineKing 1-2, and HuK 0-2, keeping him in Code A. The following season he was knocked out entirely by falling 0-2 in the first round to Puzzle.

MMA wouldn't return to Code A until 2012 GSL Season 2, falling third in his group and landing in the Ro32 where he would face Line and defeat him 2-0 to advance into the Ro24, meeting KeeN but losing to him 1-2, falling just close to a granted Code S spot, he played in the Up and Down matches, but couldn't win a game and lost 0-3, staying in Code A for the next season.

In the third 2012 GSL MMA would start in Code A vs HongUn, making this HongUn's last match from Code A before retiring,[4] MMA would advance 2-0 and face HerO, few days before the match MMA would enter a controversial fight with SlayerS and would be demoted to the B-Team [5] just a few days before his match, nonetheless MMA would take a smooth 2-0 win over the Protoss player and continue his Code A run, advancing to the Ro24 where he would play against viOLet, he would beat him 2-1 which put him back into Code S RO32.

During MMA's first Code S season in GSL August after being seeded through MLG, he 2-0'd his group, ending NesTea's undefeated GSL streak. He faced off against Polt in the Round of 16 in a rematch of the Super Tournament final, but lost to the Prime Terran once again, although this time in a close series which ended 1-2 in Polt's favor.

The next season, MMA chose NesTea for his group, not having many choices left. This time, NesTea defeated MMA, but MMA was still able to make it out of his group 2-1, by beating NaDa and KeeN. He defeated asd in Ro16 and followed it up with a 3-2 win over Clide in a hard fought series in the Ro8. In the Semifinals he went up against the IM Terran Happy defeating him 3-1. The finals were held at the BlizzCon, where he would face off against Mvp, the reigning champion, and defeat him 4-1 to win his first GSL title.

During the Group Selection for GSL November, MMA made some controversy when he picked his teammate YugiOh and criticized him. In addition to YugiOh, his group contained another teammate, Ryung, and one of the five Protoss players in Code S, MC. MMA would advance with ease, beating YugiOh and MC to place first in the group. In the Round of 16, he was in Group A with NesTea, HuK, and Leenock. There he convincingly defeated NesTea then Leenock to advance onto the Round of 8.

MMA would fall to Oz 2-3 in a close series in the RO8, ending MMA's run for November. His loss to Oz meant that MC would be able to participate in the Blizzard Cup.

In the first season of 2012 Round of 32, MMA would sweep his group with 2-0's against GuMiho and Zenio. The Round of 16 group stage went a lot closer than the previous round. With two close wins against Oz and a loss against teammate Puzzle, MMA was still be able to advance to the next round. MMA would go on to meet aLive in the RO8, where he lost 1-3. Because he made it to the RO8, he would be qualified for next season's Code S.

In the 2nd season of the 2012 Global StarCraft II League Season 2/Code S, MMA would be placed in the RO32 Group F with Squirtle, Leenock, and NaDa. MMA would first play Squirtle where he would lose 1-2, he went to the losers match to face NaDa and 2-0'ed him. He would then go to play in the final match versus Leenock where he would lose 0-2 and fall to Code A RO32.

From September 10 to September 11, 2011, MMA participated in the IPL Season 3 Qualifier 3. MMA started off from the Round of 64. MMA defeated Volta, Artist, Heart, Min, and July , in order to advance in to the finals to face Stephano. He wasn't able to defeat Stephano and ended up taking second place after losing by a score of 1-2.

From October 6 to October 9, 2011, MMA participated in the IGN ProLeague Season 3. IPL 3 started off with a Pools play. MMA started off in Pool D with White-Ra, TheStC, and IdrA. MMA advanced out of his pool with a score of 1-2 in to the championship bracket. In the championship bracket, MMA took down Sheth, Sleep, and PuMa, in order to advance in to the semifinals to face Lucky. He wasn't able to defeat Lucky and lost to him by a score of 0-3.

MMA was announced in May 2011, to be one of the first four South Korean invites chosen to participate in the GSL-MLG Exchange Program. He participated in MLG Columbus 2011 going undefeated in his group and defeated notables such as July, SjoW and IdrA. MMA would face off LosirA in the winners final, beating him 2-1 in a best of 3 series. He would meet LosirA once again in the grand final after LosirA climbed up beating MC in the lower winners final. MMA defeated him 2-0 in a best of 3 series, claiming the first place.

He was invited to return to MLG Anaheim 2011 along with his mentor BoxeR to defend his MLG title. MMA placed second in his group, losing only to Rain, and then made his way through the Loser's Bracket in the Championship Bracket going through SLush, NaNiwa and DongRaeGu before ultimately team killing GanZi and BoxeR to make it to the finals to face Mvp. In the finals, he ended up losing 2-1 in the first best of 3, therefore coming in second. Because Mvp already had Code S status, MMA would be offered and receive it instead through the MLG - GSL exchange program.

Due to his high placing in two MLG, MMA got enough points to be one of the top four seeded players at MLG Providence 2011. However, he lost to his rival DongRaeGu 0-2 in the Championship Bracket winners' bracket and was eliminated from the tournament by Leenock losing 1-2, finishing 9th overall.

He was one of the invited players from Korea for IEM Season VI Kiev and got seeded in Group C. He took the group's first place by beating HasuObs 2-1, Pomi 2-0 and TargA 2-1. He beat Feast 3-1 in the quarterfinals and Zenio 3-0 in the semifinals. His opponent in the finals was DIMAGA, who he defeated 3-1.

Because of his first place finish at Kiev, he was invited to play in the World Championship. Placed in group A, he would go 5-0 in his group, defeating viOLet, JYP, Socke, KiLLeR, and Strelok all 2-0. Because of his strong finish in group stage, he would be seeded into the quarterfinals, where he defeated Zenio 3-0. However, in the semifinals he would lose to PuMa 1-3. He would then defeat Feast in the 3rd place match, earning him 3rd place in the tournament.

He was one of the invited players in Iron Squid – Chapter I, where he took the first place in his group with a score of 3-1, defeating Life 2-1, jjakji 2-0, losing to MaNa 1-2 and getting a win over Stephano who forfeited his match.[6] In the bracket play, he defeated PuMa 3-1 in the quarterfinals, then aLive 3-2 in the semifinals, earning a place in the finals, where he defeated Symbol 4-2.

With the release of Heart of the Swarm and the advent of the WCS tournament system, MMA decided to participate in WCS Europe, and received one of the 24 invites to the inaugural 2013 WCS Season 1 Europe Premier League. In the Ro32, MMA was upset by Feast 1-2 in his first match, but defeated each of SortOf and MaNa 2-0 to finish second in his group and advance to the Ro16. There, he lost 0-2 to Strelok and 1-2 to ForGG, finishing last in his group and falling to the third round of Challenger League. There, he defeated Bunny 2-0 to qualify for the 2013 WCS Season 2 Europe Premier League.

During the 2013 GSTL Season 1, MMA played for Axiom-Acer. He only played four games, going 2-2, with the majority of his team's victories coming at the hands of his former SlayerS teammate, Ryung. In their playoff match against LG-IM, where Axiom-Acer was all-killed by YongHwa, MMA was the only player of the 6-member team to not play.

In the 2013 WCS Season 2 Europe Premier League, MMA advanced to the Ro16 easily, defeating TAiLS 2-1 and TLO 2-0 to finish first in his group. In his Round of 16 group he suffered a loss to NaNiwa, but was able to advance regardless by defeating Happy twice, going 4-0 in maps against his Terran opponent. He defeated HasuObs 3-1 in the Round of 8 before falling to MC in the semifinals by the same score.

MMA played at his first DreamHack event at the 2013 DreamHack Open: Bucharest tournament on September 14–15, 2013 in Bucharest, Romania. He was seeded into the second group stage where he took a 6-1 score against Snute, Krr, and NightEnD, with the one loss to Snute. In the third group stage, MMA took a 6-0 score against top Korean players YugiOh, Flash, and Ryung. In the bracket stage, he defeated two more top players in Avenge and ForGG before facing off against his teammate INnoVation in the semifinals. After winning the first game and securing an advantage in the second game through superior army positioning, MMA seemed poised to take the series. However, after a poor engagement near INnoVation's base, his opponent was able to push across the map before MMA could rebuild his army and tie the series 1-1. INnoVation used an aggressive strategy in the next game to close the series, and MMA had to be content with a 3-4th place finish.

He did, however, break his 18-month championship drought in the 2013 WCS Season 3 Europe Premier League. Against MC in the grand finals, he took the first three games, and then after MC closed to 3-2, he scouted MC's Blink Stalker strategy, picked off MC's Mothership Core to buy a lot of time and then delivered the coup de grâce using Medivacs and Marines with Stimpacks.[7] He would go on to beat Jaedong on his way to the final 8 of the WCS 2013 Season 3 Final and also punched a return ticket to BlizzCon for the 2013 WCS Global Finals. He also helped propel Axiom-Acer to its first GSTL championship - 2013 GSTL Season 2 - which made him and teammates Alicia and Ryung, who were also part of SlayerS' championship teams, the first players to be part of three GSTL championship clans.

It was during Heart of the Swarm that MMA also acquired a reputation for his extremely strong TvP, and a rather mediocre TvZ by comparison. In the 2014 WCS Season 3 Europe, which MMA won in convincing fashion, he emerged victorious in every single TvT and TvP, but lost the only TvZ match he was placed in. Other premier league victories by MMA in the same period also reflect this trend. This culminated in the 2014 WCS Global Finals, where MMA defeated his Terran and Protoss opponents without much trouble, but was defeated by Life in an extremely one-sided finals. Indeed, during this event, commentators repeatedly praised MMA's TvP prowess but correctly predicted that his TvZ would show some weakness. This was despite Blizzard's recent buffs to the Terran Widow Mine.

In the 2015 Global StarCraft II League Season 1, MMA also gave a weak showing against former SlayerS teammate Dark, going out 0-2 in a very one-sided affair. However, his TvP would carry him to victory once again, with an impressive 2-0 against both Protoss former GSL Code S champions, Dear and Seed.

After representing team SBENU in Proleague and korean tournaments in 2015 he does not appear on SBENU's roster for 2016.[8]
On December 16, 2015 Team Acer announced that MMA was retiring after competing in the upcoming HomeStory Cup XII:[9] despite losing a match in the Round of 16 versus FireCake, MMA won the tournament with a game score of 18-6, taking his revenge on FireCake himself in the Grand Finals with the score of 4-1.

Accidentally destroyed one of his own Command Centers during a game against IdrA at 2011 MLG Colombus. He then proceeded with a bit of desperation attack and won due to IdrA rage-quitting - much to MMA's surprise. After winning the series, his ceremony included miming a Street Fighter Hadoken fireball at IdrA's booth.[10][11]

Was dubbed the "Legend Killer" by Tastosis when he first arrived on the scene after his victories over Mvp and other notable players in clutch team league matches.

MMA does not like his South Korean nickname, Military Terran.[12] (MMA stands for Military Manpower Administration in Korean).

MMA intended for his ID to be just "M" but ended up with "MMA" because Battle.net required names to be at least three characters. In MMA's first Code A season, his name was in fact announced as "SlayerS_M." He then chose the ID "MMA" because he became a fan of mixed martial arts (popularized by such organizations as the UFC, Pride, Bellator and Strikeforce) in high school.

His favorite fighters are Cristiano Marcello and Wanderlei Silva, and he has a certificate from Marcello after having lessons with him.

Says that he would be a professional footballer (soccer player) in a second life.

Is a Bayern Munich fan and lists Cristiano Ronaldo as his favorite player.

Appeared in Greek attire (in his case, a foot soldier's leather armor, complete with sword, shield and spear) with BoxeR, Jessica and Eve in advertising for the Korean MMORPG Troy based on the Trojan War.[14]